Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Pav Bhaji ~ Mumbai Style

Pav-Bhaji happens to be one of my fav food from Mumbai. I still remember the taste at Canon Pav-Bhaji stall. It was amazing. When I was in school we used to visit Mumbai( then it was Bombay) every year during Ganapathi. Most of my cousin's were from Mumbai and thus we used to have great time during these visits. We, Cousin's used to meet during Summer vacations and enjoy :). It was the time, where my cousin, used to take me for a double ride on cycle.. we (me and my sister,Ramyakka) would enter kitchen and try to cook different dishes in the evening and experiment on the entire family not that they used to complain..We would also clean the kitchen you see! Play cricket and what not! It was so much fun. Even to this day when we all cousin's meet we have a great time. The Last time we were together was during my wedding and inspite of the hurry, it was great.

When I was browsing through Nupur's blog I was caught with the title "Bombay Street Food - Pav Bhaji". It interested me and I decided to give it a try. Her recipes never fail for me. I have tried her Sheera and also Bhadang. Both came out perfect. When I glanced through her recipe for Pav Bhaji, I was amazed to find that she did not add any onion to masala. I used to usually chop lot of Onions and fry it well. Good for me I thought (Less work!! I know the lazy me!) and decided to give it a try! The first time I made it a month back we gobbled up in hurry and forgot to take snaps. This time I made it, I made sure to click a snap before it vanishes! Do give this recipe a try and believe me you won't be disappointed. The only modification that I made was to omit butter completely and add a pinch of Kasuri methi. I have seen this being added at one of the restaurants in Mangalore and loved the aroma of it.

28 comments:

Bhaji without onions is a great idea..kasuri methi adds a typical restaurant flavor to north indian curries..Pav bhaji is one of my favorite chats..have never tried making them at home..if ever I travel to Mumbai,2 things I definitely got to try are vada pav and pav bhaji..;-)

Ditto with me....same old fun days when during Ganpati me with my cousins(and mind u loads of them) would stroll whole nights in Chembur(mumbai) visiting different pandals, and all the summer and diwali vacations were also spend there.Food and picnics were only two things on mind during those visits everyyear...but sigh....not any more.Everyone is involved in their own lives and there is hardly any enthusiasm left to meet each otherAnd then this Nupurs Pavbhaji...hmm infact when i first saw the recipe(her's was the first ever blog i visited without knowing wht a blog is) i was apprehensive of making pavbhaji without onions..but since she strongly recommended i went ahead and rest is history...i mean now not only me but my mom,MIL,Aunts etc all make pavbhaji that wayThough i had never used kasuri methi in pavbhaji(and i will surely try it out next time)i religiously use it in all other graviesPavbhaji looks yummm:-)

What fun times with cousins isn't it? Since you all volunteered to clean the kitchen, nobody would mind right? Thanks for meninding me about paav bhaji, it is a good thing to ahve for this cold weather.

What a coincidence Ujwal i also made pav bhaaji yesterday. this time i also made pav at home watching Vah Chef's video. ur pav bhaji looks very nice. i have never tried making without onions. will try ur version next time.

Divya,Yeah... Without onions save a lot of time.. Kasuri methi does add a nice flavour. Do try this dear. I am sure you will like it. Yeah don't ever miss Vada Pav.. I love it so much that during my last visit I had them for evening snacks as well as dinner ;)

Purnima,Yes,Her recipes are simple and easy to make and the end result is always tasty :)

SK,RK,KF,Thanks dearies

Gita,Please do and let me know how you like it :)

Alka,Chembur.. right this was one of the places we visited to see the ganapathi that was kept in stadium.. This time they had made Disney world as theme.. it was a castle with few Disney characters..I agree even I was skeptical to make it without Onions. But once I tasted it..I fell in love with it. Easy to make too.. do add a pinch of Kasuri methi too if you like it.. Let me know how you liked it.

Thanks ujwal. That looks very nice. I will definitely try to prepared pav bhaji one of these days.Why don't you shift to Dubai & be our neighbour?(so that we can taste all your nice recipes!!!haha..) -Sabitha

Sabithakka,Please do try and let me know how you liked it. Well we get some nice job there then we won't mind shifting ;) I will get to taste yummy food from your kitchen too. I know you are a very good cook :D